Why the Possum's Tail is Bare

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing and Multicultural Tales
Review: A collection of Native American Indian folk tales include an amusing Cherokee folktale, "Why the Possum's Tail is Bare." This Why-tale explains how the possum went from having a beautiful tail of long hair, to a bare tail. The Rabbit in the story, who is jealous of the Possum's tail, puts the Cricket up to clipping off the hair on the Possum's tail. How does the Possum find out that his beautiful hair is gone, and what does he do when he finds out?
The book named after the Folktale, "Why the Possum's Tail is Bare," is full of various folktales from eight different Native American Indian Tribes. The folktales are short, with most of them under 2 pages. Although the stories are short and lack a heavy story line, I think they are more tailored to an older elementary reader.
The book is illustrated with simple, pen and ink drawings.
My favorite part of the folktales in this book is the extra information right before the tale. The information not only tells you the personality of the characters in the tale, but it gives you real information about nature and animals. For instance, before, "Why the Possum's Tail is Bare," the excerpt tells the reader that the rabbit is deceitful and cunning. It also tells the reader that the possum is the only North American marsupial. This information is interesting to the reader and helpful in building the characters of the story.

Rating:
Summary: Why the Possum's Tale is Bare?
Review: I am an 8th grade teacher and have used Why the Possum's Tale is Bare in my classroom for a number of years. It is a collection of folk tales from all over the country,native American, African American,etc. The tales are short,entertaining, and wonderful for reading when you have a few extra minutes at the end of a class. I highly recommend it to teachers or parents as a read aloud.